Story+1984-11-08+Tempe,+AZ

‘‘Here´s a song about, uh....about blind faith....and uh, and its tragic results.....it’s a song about people, people believing in ghosts.....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘Reason to Believe’**

‘‘Here´s a....song, when I grew up, there was this a....big white house that stood on the hill on the out, outskirts of town....and uh....at nights sometimes my old man´d be sitting in the kitchen....(?) he’d say ‘You wanna go for a ride ?’, he´d put me in the car....and....he´d drive me out, out by this house and he´d just pull over by the side of the road all the time and he wouldn’t say anything, he´d just sit there and smoke a cigarette and kind of look up there..... and me and my sister, in the daytime we used to....we´d run, like, run by the gate and look in and they had like this old guard that´d come up and chase you away, it was like a kid’s game we used to play...”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘Mansion on the Hill’**

‘‘Thank you, thank you....everybody, uh.... .everybody has events, I guess, that they, they mark their lives by...certain things that happened you can remember exactly where you were, what age you were.....I remember when, uh....I remember that day that John Kennedy was shot, I was, I was 13 and I was in gym class and this kid came....running across the field, telling us that the president, the president’d been killed....and uh, I remember where I was when I heard that Elvis Presley died....I was home, it was hard to understand....I guess, uh, that sometimes a dream that comes true is a dangerous thing....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘Johnny Bye Bye’**

‘‘Now, this is a song.....about ancient history...I’m not talking about the Mesopotamians or the Babylonians or the Phoenicians or the Italians....I’m talking about personal stuff....I’m talking about stuff that when I pass away, you´re gonna read in the National Enquirer....I’m in a confessional kind of mood right now....’cause when I was a kid....there was only three things that I wanted to be....wanted to be a guitar player....wanted to be a pool player ‘acuse my daddy was and his daddy was....and I wanted to be a lover !....see, like I bought this pooltable, my parents bought it for me one Christmastime, we got it for 69.95 at Sears....and put it up in my bedroom, it just fit in.....so like I used to bring my girlfriends home, I would say ‘Dad, we’re gonna go up in my room and play pool’....so....so like, that was my trick but my father, the kitchen, he always used to sit in the kitchen, was right underneath my bedroom so if he didn´t hear the guitar playing, if he didn’t hear the poolballs knocking around, he’d get a broom and he´d start banging on the ceiling....yeah......but I, I kind of had it all figured out, like, I used to pull the pooltable real over close to the bed and every once in a while I’d kind of reach up and like knock the balls around a little bit.....you had to make do, you had to do what you do....but anyway I gave up playing pool.....and of the other two, I only became proficient at one.....the guitar....but the third thing, I’m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise....I lead a lonely life (chuckles)....what do you say, should I tell my story now, boys ?.....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘Glory Days’**

‘‘This is uh.....this is a song, I was....I guess it was about five years ago, I was passing through Phoenix here....and uh, I went into a drugstore and I found this book called ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ by a fella named Ron Kovic, who’s a Vietnam Veteran and it was his story.....this is a song about, uh.....coming home, this is called ‘Shut Out the Lights’....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘Shut Out the Light’**

‘Thank you, this is a song, I guess, uh.....everybody kind of ends up with a love-hate-relationship with the place that they grew up in and uh.....I know that I did when I was a kid, couldn’t wait to get out of the town where I was born, I used to take trips to New York City all the time.....but uh....later on I guess you gotta, someday you gotta face up the responsobility to the, that you belong to something somewhere, whether it´s your country or your state....the town you grew in....uh....past 15 months here....I know there´s been a strike at Phelps Dodge Corporation....and uh.....tonight when you go out into the lobby during intermission, you´re gonna see a table for the People’s Clinic....and what that is, they’re.... there´s, they´re, they’re supporting....they’re giving medical aid to people whose medical benefits’d been cut due to the strike....it was started by a doctor named Doctor O’Leary.... who, uh, lost his job at Phelps Dodge Corporation for speaking out on behalf of the strikers ....and they can use your help, you know, there’s people out there fighting for their lives and their homes and their families and the communities that they live in....and.....I hope that if you believe that the business of America is Americans.....you can find some way to....some way to give ‘em a little support out there tonight, I know they can use it and they’d appreciate it and I’d appreciate it....they serve in Clifton and they supply medical aid not just to strikers but to anybody who’s out there and we got, we got to where we ought to pay for it so....thank you.....in the end.....sometimes, sometimes these things feel like they’re happening a long ways away but they´re happening right here in your hometown....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ‘My Hometown’**

´´Take it easy now, boys....well, now, this is a song about the conflict.....between worldly things and spiritual health.....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy....now, where did this conflict begin ?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden.....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike .... now, understand ....in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living.....you didn´t have a nice little house, you didn´t have a little bed you could crawl up into at night....you didn´t have a Laundromat you could bring down and wash your clothes, you didn´t have no Big Surf you could run out there and jump into the ocean and never die...you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheese-burger when you wanted one.....now, in the Garden of Eden there was no sin...there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence ....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in ....but previous to the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries, why my, why my flesh and my body pull me this way and why my spirit pulls me that way so I went down and found out that that location is now, is now occupied by a man that calls....what the hell is it called ?....oh, Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....now, I walked in....the man looked at me and he said ´Son, you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck , TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’...but at first I said I wanna know where, where all this conflict began....and he said ´Well, that´s, that´s easy ....you see, ´cause right here on these ten acres of beautifully industrial-zoned real estate, there was the sweetest little paradise you´d ever seen on Earth, it was called the Garden of Eden, there was a man, there was a woman....it was Eve, she looked so good....she had lips like honey and when Adam kissed her...oh....she had legs that were thin and pale and when Adam touched her....but somehow something came slithering up on his belly, Satan came along and turned their love into a betrayal....but right here, son, out on this backlot for 99.95 and no money down....is their getaway vehicle....and if you´ve got the hind to ride, I´ve got for you the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´I´d be hearing her call me ´Bobby, Bobby´....I´d be running around the house trying to find my keys....because now, now sometimes she´d hide ´em on me because....she didn´t want me to take the car out....and it got hard to make her understand....that when I took the car out....and when I won....that it was the only time I really felt good about myself...it was something that I could do good...and to have just one thing....one thing in your whole life that makes you proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....is it ?.... (....) Now, that was the night that we left....we still don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time....sometimes it feels like we´re just kids out here.... rambling around....trying to get home before it gets too dark....but....I guess you gotta keep searching....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Thanks....this is for anybody that remembers us from the old Celebrity Theater days....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ´Jungleland´**

´´Alright, let me just take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to the show here in Phoenix, thank you....I´d like to thank for your support of the People´s Clinic and uh...they´re people out there trying to make the place that you live a better place to live....so this is your town so fight for it....”
 * 08.11.84 Tempe, AZ, intro to ´Born to Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//